


Song of Hope

by Feuermalerin



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, Implied Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:42:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29546028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feuermalerin/pseuds/Feuermalerin
Summary: She is alone. So alone. In the midst of light and gold and memory. She knows her duty. Knows why she is here. Here, between time and being, in the sea of life and dream and Hylia's holiness. / BotW Zelda's fight against time and against Ganon / indirect ZeLink
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Song of Hope

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my native language. Sorry :)

**T** ime. Time...

Time.

Time comes and time goes. Time has lost its length, its speed, has lost the corners that were invisible before, has lost its essence, its action. Time exists only when he rears up.

When it hammers against the golden threads that imprison it. By thousands. Thousands upon thousands. Countless delicate, fine, golden threads. A prison of light. Of power. Of innocence. Of life.

Hylia.

Hylia holds him captive. Hylia is the one who holds back evil. Who has always held it back, who lets it go free, at her will. For evil, darkness, danger and hatred and wickedness, are as much a part of the world as light. They are equally great and equally strong. And only in the dark can a light shine.

Evil can no more be destroyed than hope can ever be completely extinguished.

A struggle that is not one. That never was.

An illusion that creates life. That fills worlds. That gives birth to meaning.

Hylia is light.

Hylia is love.

Hylia is life.

Ganon is her adversary. Born to destroy. Created to torment. Bundled in a single-minded powerful force whose purpose is to purify.

Hylia does not hate Ganon.

Hylia does not know hate.

Ganon hates Hylia.

Ganon knows only hate.

And hate is what threatens to scorch her.

She.

Who is _she_?

Sometimes memories flare up. A sense of the moment. A sense of now.

Then, when Ganon rages. When effort makes the void tighter.

When she must fight.

Then sometimes she knows.

Knows that she _is_.

That _she_ is Zelda.

Sometimes there is separation.

Sometimes Hylia is there. A presence, a being. Then Zelda feels herself. Feels herself through the difference. Feels more. Feels everything.

Feels the land. _Her_ land. Hyrule.

Earth. Stone. Old. Young.

Feels its resting. Feels its waiting.

Feels pain and fear. Feels life.

And she waits. In these moments she knows.

She is waiting.

She waits for something.

It happens slowly.

And with the recognition of slowness comes awareness.

Slowly but steadily.

She feels.

Zelda feels. She feels herself.

She is not Hylia. Was part of her. For a long time and no time at all. Hylia is part of her. But Zelda is something other than Hylia.

And the time comes.

Time forms and out of it comes past and future.

In between ... in between is Zelda.

She is alone. So alone. In the midst of light and gold and memory.

She knows her duty. Knows why she is here. Here, between time and being, in the sea of life and dream and Hylia's holiness.

She remembers. Remembers everything. Years. Lives.

But the past fades. The future is pressing. And Zelda feels impatience. Hope. Fear.

And Ganon trembles.

It's no longer Hylia who holds him captive, but Zelda.

 _Wasn't_ she before? Thoughts fall heavily. They fall into the depths. Falling and falling until Zelda catches them. Until she remembers what it was like to think.

And Zelda thinks. Puts memories together and pulls thoughts from mental seeds that come out of nowhere. Raises them into plants that thrive in her mind. A mind that grows and understands and observes.

And eventually she _knows_ again.

Knows what she is waiting for. Knows how she got here. Knows what she will do.

Thinking is all Zelda can do for many weeks. How gracious were the years of sleep before that. The absence of the concept of a week. Of a day. Of a month.

Because that's what it must have been. Sleep. A kind of homeostasis in which the Goddess kept her and from whose protection she released Zelda, because the time is approaching.

That's the way it has to be.

It just has to be.

Because this ... this is ...

Zelda does not allow herself to judge. Fear grows and impatience presses. Excitedly, her human heart begins to beat. Longing squeezes it.

Pain is there.

Once before, she has failed her people. Once before she has almost doomed them.

She must stand firm.

She will stand firm.

She will stand firm.

Years have passed. She can see it in the weathered streets. The stone that was supposed to last forever and whose original shine, covered by age and tragedy, melancholically testifies to what once was.

She sees the empty streets, overgrown with green. The decay. The destruction.

But she also sees life. Colorful and bright. So much life.

The land, Hyrule, is alive.

And it waits. It waits just like Zelda. Just like Ganon, who does not wait, but lurks.

The hour before dawn is cold and dark. Perhaps it is the coldest hour of the night. Maybe it only feels that way because you've had to endure the cold and dark for so long.

Zelda experiences these dark hours. She knows how it feels when the flame of hope struggles to breathe, when loneliness breeds despair, when darkness advances until only a small light is left of the beacon of one's strength.

She feels Ganon rejoicing. Feels his malevolence creeping toward her.

She braces herself for the attack.

An attack that never comes.

Does Ganon feel it too? Is that why he stops?

Or is it Zelda who is eluding him? A wave without a rock wall cannot break, but pours into the vastness of the sea without resistance.

Nothing was ever more unimportant.

_Open your eyes ..._

Blue eyes shine in the twilight of 100 years of sleep. Sapphires in the darkness. Hope.

A heart that gallops hammering beats into the void.

An echo that answers. At last.

The princess.

The hero.

Divine light and divine sword.

Forever united.

Always united.

Zelda.

Link.

_Link._

_Wake up, Link!_

The right words are there. In the air or in her head. So long she thought about each one...The sound and the effect, the meaning checked and sorted.

The important thing is that Link hears them. And he does. He follows her voice.

She receives him with light. Shines towards him. Let the world welcome him! Let Ganon see him! Let him see, who enters the stage!

_See your doom!_

For the first time in 100 years, since that terrible and wonderful moment when she faced Ganon and let him swallow her, since her trap for him snapped shut around him, Zelda addresses him.

_Never will you be victorious._

Rumbling and bitterness. Molasses and venom answer her. Ganon's malice knows no language in this form. It knows only blind hatred. Sanity and frenzy do not go together, and it is frenzy that prevents Zelda from blazing across Hyrule.

The treachery and calculation lurk elsewhere. They were never part of this battle.

Perhaps they are what Hylia is holding back.

Zelda doesn't know.

Zelda calls to him. Link. Guides him.

Sees his weakness. His confusion. His strong, brave heart. The heart of a hero.

What must he be thinking? Can he remember?

No. No, it doesn't look like it.

He is silent. Zelda can see how eagerly, how intently he catalogs, categorizes.

He is _her_ Link. And yet, again, not.

He doesn't recognize her father. He doesn't recognize her voice.

And yet ... and yet he turns to her. He lets himself be led. Trusts her.

Trusts his instinct. His infallible warrior instinct. The instinct that makes him a hero.

She sees him strengthen and stumble. Sees him hurt and close to collapse.

Sees him exploring the land and following tracks.

He runs, he fights, he rides.

He is Link.

And yet ...

Until finally voices fill the void.

Mipha. Daruk. Urbosa. Revali. Freed by the strengthening hand of the hero of Hyrule. Zelda hears their voices. Feels their concentration. Their bracing for the final battle.

Ganon fights with mighty power.Desperation makes him stronger.

To hold him becomes incredibly difficult.

Again and again fear grips her heart. Ganon manages to curse the sky. He sends his monsters to torment Hyrule. Monsters that terrorize the people that have been terrorized enough.

Monsters that stop Link and yet can't stop him. That make him stronger, that he defeats. He defeats every single one.

But there is no more time.

Zelda's powers are waning.

Or are Ganon's growing stronger? Fueled by hatred that seethes unstoppably within him at the sight of the living hero and fueled by fear?

Does Ganon know fear? Does hatred and malice know fear?

Zelda has no strength to think about it.

With every step Link takes on Hyrule's soil, with every beat of his heart that demands a response of her own, Zelda's humanity returns.

With each memory he recovers, her thoughts also circle around the events of the past.

She thinks of all the moments of despair. Of her weakness and all the unkind words. Between her and her father. The cutting injustice from her own lips, hurled at Link.

His kindness fills Zelda with humility once again.

His loyalty awakens all that had slept with her spirit. Still too big to fit inside her, is this universe of feeling. Accumulated in life after life, there are no words for what he means to her.

She wants to tell him about it. Wants it so much, so, so badly. Wants to look him in the eye. Stand face to face with him. Needs him. Needs him.

As he stands amidst the ruined guardians that had nearly been the end of him 100 years ago, on the same ground that had been soaked first by his blood and then by Hylia's holy sigil power, Zelda can breathe for the first time.

Relief flows through her mouth, throat, chest. Through a body she can feel.

_I am here … inside Hyrule Castle._

He does not come immediately.

He hesitates.

Ganon fights like a berserker.

Zelda can hardly hold him. Needs all her strength to keep the golden cage around him taut. She can't see where Link is. Continues to feel the echo of his footsteps on the land she is connected to.

So far, her strength has been enough. Just so.

And then ... and then a thread breaks.

A golden thread of light snaps.

Until now, Zelda had thought that Ganon fought.

She had never seen him fight before. The moment Link draws the sword, Ganon really begins to fight.

The sacred sword in the hands of the hero. Where Zelda had laid it to rest so many years before, after acting on the sword's instructions and having its injured Chosen Hero brought to the Shrine of Life, Link had found it.

He had found it and taken it. And in doing so, caused a landslide.

Zelda has no time for the crimson fingers of shame that reach out to her, as the memory comes. The memory of the message she had wanted to give to the Deku tree for Link. What Link would have heard at that moment, had the wise old being not interrupted her then.

All sensation burns away under the effort. Scorched by the fires of devastation that lick at the threads of Ganon's lighter prison.

_Link..._

_Link..._

_Link..._

Zelda doesn't know if he hears her.

She is made of white heat. Spent is its power, and yet it glows.

The moment has come.

_I‘m sorry … but my power isn‘t strong enough._

_I can‘t hold him._

But Link is here.

He is there.

Always.

Always.

Forever.

He is there.

Harder than before. A blade forged in the fires of fate, he meets Ganon's curse. He survives the thousand dangers with which Ganon tries to cut him down.

And finally ... finally the shell shatters and the real Ganon is free.

And with him ... also Zelda.

Evil incarnate. Beast and eye. Whirling anger and raging fury. Hatred and malice. A horror cast in form.

_I entrust you with the Bow of Light._

It is the essence of Hylia herself. The power to seal away evil and restore balance. And likewise, it is an essence of Zelda. Formed into a weapon of light. Formed into an instrument of war. A bridge between light and darkness.

_Courage need not be remebered. For it is never forgotten._

Knight and steed. Light. Bow and arrow.

Hylia in the form of a weapon.

Link catapults himself upwards. He floats in the air. He aims. He hits.

Ganon roars.

And Zelda is there.

Like so many times before, she raises her hand, and through it, wisdom, courage, and strength find a gateway into matter. Gold breaks through the sick light that has taken on disturbing flickers of red, disgust made into color.

Hylia's essence shines, here, at the turning point. Night fades into day.

Light dispels darkness.

Ganon flees. And is caught up. An inaudible whistling, a deafening roar. Tearing, bursting, explosion.

And then ... peace.

Ganon is banished. His evil gone. Devastation is averted and the land ... free.

Peace. That's what Zelda feels as her feet touch the ground.

As her eyes see, for the first time in a hundred years.

As wind moves her hair and she feels the land sigh.

 _Finally_. It is a prayer of thanks that flies on invisible wings towards the horizon.

Zelda's voice joins in the cheer. Her tongue forms words, words that all ears can hear. That all of Hyrule can hear. That all of Hyrule should hear.

"I‘ve been keeping watch over you all this time."

Zelda stands on green grass. On the land she had always wanted to protect. Still bathed in the unnatural light of Ganon's influence. Her gaze fixed on the ground, so that she does not to have to look ahead. Towards her prison of 100 years. She is free.

"I‘ve witnessed you struggle to return to us as well as your trials in battle."

Footsteps behind her. But she dare not turn. Footsteps that are so familiar. So long her ears have not heard them.

"I always thought. No, I always believed that you would find a way to defeat Ganon. I never lost faith in you. All these years."

Then she does. Her feet need no persuasion. Her hands find each other as she turns. Her gaze travels up his form, clad in the blue of the royal house of Hyrule, in the tunic she once had made for him. Past the signs of battle survived, up to the face so dear to her.

"Thank you, Link," her voice sings in unison with her heart, "The Hero of Hyrule."

The smile that fills her body, her senses, her every thought, pales a little. Pales because a cloud is gathering on the horizon. A cloud that is wet with a single question, ready to rain down and turn into a thunderstorm.

So much he has done, this hero who had it so hard. So much he has proven, with his indelible bravery.

It should be unimportant, given what he has overcome. And yet Zelda almost chokes on the question. She has to know.

She has to know.

"Do you remember?" The question falls between them like a stone thrown into a well. And yet more words follow. She can't hold them back.

"Do you remember who I am?"

And as she waits and hopes and greedily soaks up the sight of him, the sky begins to rumble.

~ mit Feuer gemalt


End file.
